As Instagram becomes the 6th most popular social media platform surpassing 1 billion users around the globe with 500 million daily active users, it will be an understatement to call it just a helpful tool for marketing and fame.

While it is easy to buy Instagram followers or engagement for quick results and evident boost without hassle, several risks accompany the method, making it ineffective in the long run unless adequately managed.

Whereas for organic traffic, it is long-lasting and a secure way to succeed with no backlashes whatsoever. The traffic you receive is genuine and interested in what you have to offer, helping you stabilize your page and build authority and credibility online over time.

However, creating organic traffic is not a child’s play, with tricks that might have worked five years prior no longer effective today. So, how does one reach the desired goals?

Below are points containing some of the most efficient and latest Instagram tactics that can prove seamlessly valuable for the growth of any Instagram account when mindfully implemented.

Understand the growing importance of emojis

The increasing use of emojis in conversations and on social media must not come as a surprise to most reading this.

There always has been a need for expressionism in the online world to make communication better and quick, which was realized with the creation of the first-ever emoji back in 1999.

Fast forward to 21 years later, and emoticons have successfully become widely used and handy means to send a message, communicate emotions and add value to plain and boring text formats, especially for Gen Zs.

But, how can I increase my traffic on Instagram using emojis?

Enhance bio with emojis to boost discoverability
Your Instagram bio plays a significant role in deciding the first impression of your handle for anyone visiting as well as helping one discover you under their niche-specific search.

For, e.g., if you are an artist, using emojis such as a pencil, paintbrush, pallet, light bulb, etc., are all great at directing someone who’s searched for the emojis or related niche towards your page.

They are equally eye-catching and make it easy and quick for anyone to understand what your page is about at first glance.

There are a plethora of emoticons available on the Instagram app, making it easier for you to choose the right one as per your content and niche.

However, try not to flood the bio with emojis as they can act equally well as a put-off if not mindfully placed. Research well and find the one that has been most searched for or is in trend.

Make interactions meaningful and friendly with emojis

You must be well aware and probably even tired of the same organic growth advice of interacting with the audience, which though helpful, needs to be spiced up a bit, witnessing the changing times.

Emojis are like a touch of sincerity and friendly gestures in your replies, whether in your DMs or the comment box. They add meaning to your text, build confidence and make communication worthwhile for both ends.

Ensure that you find a suitable emoji, which under no circumstance is slightest of offending to anyone and does not imply hidden meanings.

However, as mentioned earlier, try not to overdo them.

Consistency is the Instagram key

Just being on the platform every single day and forming a posting schedule you could follow up to is of utmost importance for growth on any social media handle and not just Instagram.

An active account not just attracts an audience but makes sure that they stick around during your entire journey.

An inactive account or those posting only once in a while have equal chances of losing audience whenever they post, if not more, as the post when discovered by a person who had forgotten they followed you and seeing that you barely give out new content will make them hit that unfollow button, and it is a sad reality. Many people might even be guilty of doing this themselves.

For anyone seriously integrating Instagram in their marketing scheme or chasing a high following, planning a post ahead of time and even taking professional help when needed is not too much work.

Instagram itself promotes and looks for pages with consistent updates and suggests it henceforth if found worthwhile.

A successful post is not enough to boost traffic. Make sure you uphold the engagement you received with further intriguing and creative content.

Influence using the User-generated content

For any business, user-generated content is a way to promote and gather reviews and feedback from the audience about a particular service.

Asking the users or any previous customer to create a post featuring the product and sharing it on their social media handle or allowing the company to post it on their official page with credits to its rightful owner is known as creating user-generated content.

It is human nature for someone to trust a person they can relate to the most and those with similar experience with the product or service in question.

Holding contests or offering rewards for the content is another way to get loads of UGC’s, giving the company options.

UGC may include pictures, videos, testimonials, reviews, with a prime focus on the product and the company.

It’s one of the best ways to gain exposure, even more so if the person creating content has a niche-specific audience who might become your potential customers.

A study suggests that UGC is 35% more easily imprinted on users’ memory, with a whopping 50% of millennials more likely to trust UGC than other media.

Clear your goals and focus on Quality followers

There are numerous ways to achieve a goal, but only one with actual and consistent results. Millennials looking for a quick way to success often buy Instagram likes, only then to find it useless several months later.

The same is when you decide to buy other services online, instead of organically reaching the same, which though tough to achieve, is the only way that guarantees authentic and long-lasting fame.

Be precise in what is that you want in terms of engagement. Whether it is likes and followers for fame or potential customers for your business, know your prime focus and work towards achieving only that. Create content that benefits your niche interest and attracts the right audience.

Quality followers are those who engage with your content and are interested in what you have to offer. They boost credibility for your page, are loyal to it, and provide a long-lasting impression.

Keep in touch with the insights

The three W’s – what, when, and for whom are imperative in more than one way, which can also be easily calculated through the insights among other data.

Whom should you post for on Instagram?

Aiming for a diversified group of individuals with different interests, though it might sound appealing, is not helpful for most businesses and individual accounts. It can even backfire and reduce the visibility you otherwise would have aced.

Because all of the content and the promotional activity are busy covering the broad aspect, it fails to aim at the pivotal audience who actually would interact.

For instance, if you have a beauty brand, your key prospects are women. Now not all women but those aged between 25-45. In cases like these, women who have a previous history of interaction with other beauty-related accounts and have a search bar suggesting the same become your best pursuit, with the highest chances of clicking that follow button or availing your services and products.

But, if you aim for a person with no interest in beauty as a niche whatsoever, your chances of engagement breaks down and reduces the benefit of efforts put.

Instagram insight offers a great deal of help with letting you know who has interacted with your posts the most, their age group, gender, and more, allowing you to strategize and aim better.

What to post on Instagram?

Now that you know your target audience pick the features that particularly surge curiosity and entertain them and curate your content likewise.

Continuing the above example, for women aged 25-45, pictures and videos talking about the problems with fine lines, wrinkles and their affordable and convenient solutions are something that might work just fine.

That being said, research your target audience well and build formats and content as per their needs. You could also try contacting and asking questions around the related group in an effort to go in-depth with their interest and requirements.

Joining communities for the same or building groups and networks are yet another tricks that have worked well for many.

Again, insights tell you a ton about how well a particular post did. Find what worked for you in that popular post of yours and try to recreate and innovate the same. But do not overdo it and stay creative.

When to post on Instagram?

There are peak hours for posting in which a post gets the highest engagement and feedback compared to any other posting hour. Similarly, there too are days that exceptionally reach the audience at a larger scale.

But how does one know them?

As you might have guessed, insights it is. These allow you to understand the pattern over time with graphs and stats, telling you which have been the peak hours for your content in the past.

Alternatively, personally picking up the details, such as – posting on weekends because most people are free and scrolling through insta at the time or posting an hour or so before the standard lunch break for companies to reach the target, work equally well for any account.

An inclusive hashtag strategy is not to be missed

Everyone must be aware of how imperative hashtags are for a post on Instagram, much like keywords are for the SEO of a website.

Although simple it may seem to add a couple of hashtags in a post, things are much complicated when you are using them with the precise aim of gaining traffic.

Just randomly choosing hashtags or creating one on your own is not known as a hashtag strategy.

One needs to give thought to it and spend time finding the one that fits the post just right so that you gain visibility in front of people who are not already following you but might be interested in the niche.

Let’s see the different types of hashtags and how to curate a perfect strategy –

Industry hashtags – these tags are known as the high-end tags and are specially added for people unsure about a particular service, product, or looking for more options. E.g., #Reataurants #food #movies

Niche hashtags –

these tags are targeted to gain quality followers as people searching for niche tags are not complete newbies to the topic but know what they are looking for. E.g., #italianfood #creakwoodfurniture

Branded tags –

If you own a company or are promoting a service, use its name or related service as the hashtag makes it easy for people to find it. You can further add hashtags as per the events, contest, etc., but make sure it is relevant and does not give rise to any controversy with rival brands or faux pas.

Community hashtags –

humans evolve around the concept of community build-up. There are several niche-specific communities one could join and even create to establish a connection with others sharing a similar interest.

Location hashtags –

Local discovery and people looking to visit the same place are often connected through location tags. It could be a restaurant or just some neighborhood.

Now the question is, How to use hashtags?

A balanced mix of low and high difficulty hashtags is your best shot at influencing larger groups. Low difficulty hashtags are those which have 1000 or fewer posts associated with the same hashtag. At the same time, high difficulty hashtags are those with more than 1000 posts using the tag.

Since more posts mean the chances of discovering your content through the hashtag decreases, low difficulty hashtags are used to ease your content’s discoverability.

Now, many might wonder why they would have to bother with high difficulty ones? However, when we talk about content rank, it is only these hashtags that work wonders.

Therefore, a balanced mix of both is what you need, among other relevant hashtags.

Cross-promote to success

There is hardly a person who is not on more than one social media platform such as Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, etc. Use them to your benefit and start promoting your Instagram pages on them and vice versa in the most casual way possible.

It is an excellent method to get the same bunch of followers on different platforms.

Since they follow you on one, they are interested in what you have to offer and, if given a chance, would not have any problem following you as well.

You could try adding a link to your Instagram bio in the description of your other social media handle or try making a post about the same.

Adding it to your website, that is, if you have one, is another great tactic to let people visiting know more about what you do and build trust and credibility in the market.

You could do the same in your Instagram bio by adding a link to your online store, website, or blog.

Be social and increase the appeal

Try replying to anyone commenting or putting up a query in the comment box of your post or in the DMs. The person is most likely looking to interact, and putting up a blindfold to comments is the easiest way to set them off.

Any individual or business on social media needs to build a habit of being ready for one-on-one conversations with engaging replies to anyone who has taken the first step forward.

Starting conversations on others’ comment boxes, especially a competitor, is a brilliant way to increase followers as people who are following them can effectively act as prospects for your account, and as you comment, you grab attention and surge curiosity in them to check your profile out.

Use Instagram reels and video formats

After TikTok, the Instagram reels are the new trendsetters, with plenty of reel hours on record and availability in over 50 countries.

Instagram reels are a cost-effective way to promote a page, product, or service, compared to other advertising methods, with the only bound to the exposure being your creativity.

A viral reel is all you will need for a dramatic boost. However, since getting to a viral reel is a long process of learning and creating, below are some other methods you could try –

  • Participate in the latest trends and reel formats.
  • Re-imagine a past viral trend.
  • Create tutorials, guide, and tip related content.
  • Create reels in partnership with influencers.
  • Let people know about your service and products.
  • Create your personal challenge for your brand or otherwise.

As far as the video formats are concerned, the decreasing attention span of the millennials is gradually changing how information is consumed on platforms. Any post that fails to grab the viewer’s attention in less than 8 seconds is more likely to be skipped by them or not viewed till the end.

Make videos to the point and entertain, try to communicate relatable messages, build connections through behind the scene videos, and give in-detail explanations to make it worth their time.

Make shareable content

Relatable content, quote posts, funny videos, etc., are some formats that are widely shared on social media with friends and in groups. These are not only eye-catching but are entertaining and can capture the following easily.
Try and integrate those mentioned above in your content every once in a while, even if it goes quite the opposite to your usual posting style.

You can further increase the sharing exposure by tagging a person or a follower to the content and asking them to share it further with their thoughts, thus creating a chain of shares forward.

Make your profile memorable

With billions of users on the platforms, it is not easy to make your account or the content stand out for the users to remember.

Create a theme for your page, strategically place your posts to make them look appealing to the eye, and increase posts that reinforce familiarity with the audience.
A person is more likely to follow a person whose account they are familiar with, the same going for when it comes to unfollowing them.

Do not lose trust or engage in negative controversy for popularity

While most people talk about organic growth methods for Instagram, there are also areas you need to be mindful of while building an online community.

You must have seen people doing all sorts of stunts and putting out public comments to gain popularity on the platform, which, to be honest, works well at the time does not help in the longer run.

What’s more, the negative impact and the loss of followers once the debate dies out is unmanageable for most accounts and even more difficult to get back out of, especially if you are an influencer.

The same goes for buying Instagram followers. When you buy Instagram views, it can hugely impact your current followers’ trust and credibility in the market, doing you more harm than good if caught.

Conclusion

Instagram is an expanding platform, and the opportunities in that single statement are grand enough to create a seamless path to success.

While a lot of thought needs to be put in, with continuous efforts to keep up with the algorithm changes and updates to target better, nothing compares to the quality build-up you get on the platform.

Take your time creating and implementing strategies and even take expert advice when needed, and as time goes by, take note of what works best for you and focus on that. Happy Scrolling!